This weekend I dug into the backlog of MA film and discovered a nice documentary on the diaspora of kung fu masters from China during the Cultural Revolution. Many of them ended up in places like Maylaysia and Borneo that had become havens of traditional Chinese cultural arts.

The documentary "Needle Through Brick" focuses on a group of traditional kung fu masters who settled in Borneo and established a small following. The beginning is a bit depressing but then it becomes an exploration of what traditional kung fu looks like compared to modern wu shu, and how the young wu shu competitors of China are rediscovering the traditional forms. The filmmakers captured footage of masters performing forms that will probably die with them.

This documentary is available online through Hulu at the following link: